World News: Israel Closes Synagogues, Donates Hydroxychloroquine to US

Former Mayor of Shiloh Israel, David Rubin offers an update of the drastic measures Israel is taking to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus in an effort to prevent the silent killer from overtaking its population.

The most severe measure came from The Chief Rabbinical who announced that they are shutting down all synagogues in Israel as of 5 PM March 25, 2020. While some civil libertarians and religious free speech advocates cry foul, Israel says it must be done to protect its citizens from the Coronavirus.

Rubin further explained the partnership Israel has with the United States and the efforts both nations have taken to find a vaccine or anti-viral agent to fight the COVID-19 Coronavirus. An Israeli company has just agreed to donate 6 million doses of its malaria pill, hydroxychloroquine tablets, to the United States.

Providing commentary on this unprecedented action, David Rubin, who offers insight on a variety of topics including President Trump and his relationship to the Jewish people, Unrest in Israel, Israel's relationship to Palestine, the recent election which resulted in three general elections and no real majority, Prime Minster Netanyahu and his rival, Benny Gantz.

Q: When we think of Israel, many of us visualize people praying at the Western Wall or entering a synagogue. In fact, your book, Trump and the Jews, has a picture of President Trump praying at the Western Wall. Why would Israel's rabbis take such an extreme step?

A: It has to be done to fight the spread of the Coronavirus.

Q: Thirty percent of those testing positive for the coronavirus did so after attending synagogues or yeshivas (bible colleges). How do you explain that?

A: Synagogues are extremely social places and very often are crowded, which makes them prime breeding grounds for the spread of the virus.

Q: How will devout Jews handle this news, knowing that Jewish law requires at least ten people gathering together in a synagogue for formal worship three times a day?

A: This Corona crisis and the gradual lockdown here has been a gradual process, and some synagogues have already been closed. Some devout Jews may still object, but this is a life and death situation, which in Judaism takes precedent over every other religious precept.

Q: What long term impact do you think this will have on Judaism? Probably none. We have survived slavery in Egypt and mass slaughter by the Nazis.

A: We, along with the rest of the world, will survive this challenge and when it's over, I am predicting an economic and spiritual boom that will revival the optimism that the world experienced after World War Two.

Israel Donates Six Million Hydroxychloroquine Tablets

Q: Why a malaria drug to fight the coronavirus?

A: Both are viruses and it appears to be effective against both.

Q: When is this shipment of hydroxychloroquine, manufactured by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries of Israel is expected to be made?

Q: What has been President Trump's response to this gracious donation?

A: President Trump is an advocate of chloroquine for coronavirus treatment and has committed to make the drug available immediately.

Q: Is this medication new?

A: No. This form of chloroquine been used successfully for decades to treat malaria but has properties that seem to also treat the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Q: President Trump has been given a 60% approval rating by the American public concerning his leadership through this Coronavirus crisis. You wrote about President Trump's unorthodox leadership qualities in your book Trump and the Jews. Tell us about your book and where we might get a copy.

A: Trump has indeed been a steady hand in this crisis, as has his counterpart, Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel. You can get a copy of my book at Amazon.com Just type in the words: Trump and the Jews.

Bio: David Rubin, former Mayor of Shiloh Israel, is the author of the book, "Trump and the Jews" and five other books. Rubin is the founder and president of Shiloh Israel Children's Fund, established after he and his then three-year-old son were wounded in a terror attack. He can be found at www.DavidRubinIsrael.com or at http://www.ShilohIsraelChildren.org

Haute Tease

In a story that has gained international attention, Benjamin Nicolas Tiller, 11, has been found guilty of first degree murder in the shotgun death of his neighbor, MaKayla Dyer, 8, stemming from a dispute that escalated over puppies.

Ivanka Trump, the power-hungry daughter of President-elect Trump, flew commercial this week, along with husband Jared Kushner and their three children only to be heckled, harassed and lambasted by fellow passengers still angry over the election.

Memorial Day ushers in the traditional summer season and why not gear up with items that’ll make life easy? Here are my hot product picks for fashionistas, functional decorators, Tech-Geeks and travel junkies that’ll please and appease in the months ahead.

The program of Cannes Classics 2017 will be dedicated for its most part to the history of the Festival. Almost fifteen years ago, when the relationship between contemporary cinema and its own memory was about to be shaken by the emergent arrival of digital technology.

Gunpowder & Sky, the global content studio, announced they have sold the UK rights to Grammy-Award winning Director Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos to Arrow Films, ahead of the film's UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival next week.

Two stirring photographic essayists open 2019 at the Frost Art Museum (FIU) capturing two disenfranchised groups; a family’s daily life with the catastrophic Flint Michigan Water Crisis and America’s hidden aging culture of transgender and gender nonconforming people.

In Your Hands, from EuropaCorp Films, presents a feel-good film as fate, happenstance, chance or destiny intervenes and two people who would never meet, do, talent is recognized, and the cementing circumstances finally broken.

Two major earthquakes struck Anchorage, Alaska Friday morning, hitting just as businesses, schools and stores were opening for the day, sending frightened residents, into the streets, diving for cover and knocking local televisions stations off the air.

Pulitzer Prize winning and presidential photographer David Hume Kennerly's exhibit "Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford" will be on display for the first time at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Bentley Motors today announced that Michael Winkler will become President and Chief Executive Officer of Bentley Motors Inc., the regional office for Bentley Motors in the Americas, with effect from 1st April 2015. He succeeds Christophe Georges, who was recently appointed Director of Product and Marketing for Bentley's global organization.

Marvel Comics, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures recently hosted a special screening for the LA Media of the hugely anticipated high voltage The AmazingSpiderMan at the AMC Theaters in Century City, California.

Every year, thousands of people flock to church. The devotees pray in flower crowns and straw hats, fringe-laden vests and neon body paint. They are the congregation of music lovers, gathering from many different corners of the world to worship at the summer’s many music festivals.

The Hubble Space Telescope, in operation since the 1990’s and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s, (NASA), eye into the deep places of the universe, has discovered the existence of dwarf galaxies dating back to just after the big bang.